So affluent was the little town, however, that in addition to a swimming pool, a bowls club and a pub, it also had a large man-made lake and a caravan park.
The caravan park sat alongside the lake, and its owners — the local council — had installed four new, two-bedroom cabins so that those travellers who did decide to stay, would have somewhere comfortable to spend the night. The cabins were also used by members of the local farming and grazing community — the squattocracy — when they’d stay in town.
The squatters formed the membership of the town’s ‘other’ social organisation; the exclusive and secretive Uranus Lawn Tennis Club. When they’d decide to stay in town after a function or during a weekend-long tennis tournament, they’d stay in the caravan park cabins. There was probably no foundation to the rumour that they were not averse to sharing, and that they’d been known to squeeze somewhat more than the normal bed capacity into those cabins on such occasions.
They had their own bar at the tennis club courts so didn’t frequent the bowls club. They were seen in the dining room and bar of the Royal Hotel, however.
—oooBJSooo—
Up until the night of Scottie McFadden’s announcement, the only member of the bowls club who didn’t know that Jimmy Brown’s wife was the town bike was Jimmy Brown, himself. The poor bastard thought that the sun, moon and stars were sourced from her backside — Jimmy didn’t use words like ‘arsehole’. He loved her with a passion that very few women ever received.
If Jimmy Brown had one failing, however, it was that he was almost invisible. He was one of those people who could walk into a bank, demand money, then quietly walk out without anyone having noticed he was ever there. He was so nondescript that even the teller who had handed him the money from her drawer probably wouldn’t have been able to describe him.
That was why he was able to leave the club that night without anyone noticing. In fact, most of the patrons would not have even remembered he was ever there.
He worked for the local council as its tradesman carpenter; a position that was ideally suited to both his skills and his solitary personality. He wasn’t the lowest man on the council’s totem pole, but trade qualifications weren’t as highly recognised in local government circles as they were in other industries.
He could have earned a much higher wage if he were to move away from Uranus, but Marleen wouldn’t hear of it. And what Marleen wanted, Marleen got. Which is why in addition to his council job, Jimmy had to work on most afternoons and most weekends to make ends meet. There was no recreational downtime for Jimmy Brown, just different work. But he never complained.
“A change is as good as a holiday,” he’d once told me.
I liked Jimmy, and I had noticed he was there that night. I’d even had a chat with him. I’d seen him come into the club, but I’d had to search him out. I finally found him tucked into the corner of the bar out of everyone’s way. He was very shy, was Jimmy.